Trust your muse, a fellow writer once wrote in my margin, a man with whom I shared lots of laughs. Not advice you’d expect from a hardcore academic, it’s etched in my memory.

When I first began to write, it was still possible to reach one’s readers despite terminal shyness. But since the literary publishing climate has grown increasingly inhospitable, the muse has moved on to pastures new and I’ve followed.

I’m not sure my professor friend meant ‘muse’ as in inspiration (nor can I consult him now he’s dead). To me, ‘your’ seems to imply an indwelling presence or power. Yet, ‘the’ can be construed to allow for muses inner and outer. And it beats suebooker.com. Without the muse it’d just be me and my ego.